The Rural Voice, 1991-05, Page 3R.V.
general manager/editor: Jim Fitzgerald
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crops extension
and research, northwestern Ontario
Neil McCutcheon, fanner, Grey County
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
Bob Stephen, farmer, Perth County
contributing writers:
Adrian Vos, Gisele Ireland, Keith
Roulston, Cathy Laird, Wayne Kelly,
Sarah Borowski, Mary Lou Weiscr-
Hamilton, June Flath, Ian Wylie-Toal,
Susan Glover, Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb,
Peter Baltensperger, Darene Yavorsky,
Sandra Orr, Yvonne Reynolds
marketing and advertising sales:
Gerry Fortune
production co-ordinator:
Tracey Rising
advertising & editorial production:
Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Anne Harrison
Brenda Baltensperger
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BEHIND THE SCENES
by Jim Fitzgerald
general manager/editor
The image is still graphically
etched in my mind, even after 10
years. It was a scene described to me
by a tradesman friend of mine, who at
that time was working on a new 11 -
storey building in a nearby city. He
described how a young apprentice,
depressed with life for a reason now
forgotten, decided to take his life by
jumping from the roof of the building
which was nearing completion. My
friend was working near the window
on the tenth floor when the young lad
jumped. After falling about two
storeys, the boy must suddenly have
had a change of mind, because he let
out a primeval blood curdling scream
of terror that my friend says he's never
heard before nor since. Of course, it
was too late, he smashed into the
concrete sidewalk below, and died
later of massive injuries.
It may seem a rather brutal anal-
ogy, but that's how Canadian farmers,
particularly those in the pork industry,
must be feeling this spring about the
free trade deal (FTA) signed with the
United States in 1988. It would
appear our federal government jumped
out the window without looking first
to see how far it was to the ground,
nor what it would land on. That's the
only thing I've been able to conclude
from the recent news that the U.S. is
asking for a special "extraordinary
challenge committee," under the FTA,
to review a decision on exports of
Canadian pork to the U.S. The
Americans had just Lost a five-year
fight to countervail Canadian pork
coming into their country — claiming
Canadian farmers are receiving unfair
subsidies — because a dispute settle-
ment panel created under the FTA had
ruled that Canadians were not break-
ing any rules.
Despite our so-called subsidies,
Ontario lost 10 per cent of its pork
producers last year and production
was down 10 per cent in the first quar-
ter this year, at a time when U.S. pro-
duction fell only half of one per cent.
The Americans latest "political"
challenge is sure to make a farce out
of the FTA. It appears that Canadians
have bought a "pig -in -a -poke." The
whole process has shown that the Am-
ericans did indeed get far more out of
the free trade negotiations than we did.
Normally, under international trade
rules, importing countries can impose
punitive tariffs on a foreign country to
offset the effect of subsidies granted
by those foreign governments.
Unfortunately, during the free trade
negotiations, Canada did not obtain
any changes to U.S. law, but talked
the Americans into allowing a system
of review by bi-national dispute -settle-
ment panels of lawyers and trade
experts, five people in all, from both
countries. Mulroney was betting all
his chips that these panels would be
able to ensure fair and impartial appli-
cations of U.S. law regardless of any
political influence from American
domestic producers and their friends
in Washington. However, in reality,
the U.S. Constitution grants jurisdic-
tion over international commerce to
Congress, which of course consists of
elected politicians. They report to a
strong farm lobby who put them there,
not to a bunch of foreign lawyers and
economists on a trade panel.
The end result, even if the U.S.
loses this latest "extraordinary chal-
lenge," is that the farm lobby could
still put pressure on Congress to rule
that no foreign trade panel can super-
sede American law.
Where docs that leave us? Up the
proverbial manure creek without a
paddle in a canoe that's got a rather
large hole in the bottom! We must
either re -negotiate the deal or face
oblivion as a country.
Like the young lad, we should have
looked before we leaped, and thought
out all the consequences.0